Med Update.

First half of the aortic repair was this past Monday. Everything went well. The doc snipped my left subclavian artery where it joined the aorta and rerouted it over to the carotid. I'm left with a couple of 3" incisions on my neck and collarbone. The doc went with glue to close everything up, so I'm hoping to stay out of Wound Care--unlike with my kidney (staples) and hydrocele (stitches) surgeries.

I did an overnight in the hospital to make sure I wasn't going to stroke out or something. I was pretty bored, very boring. I had a nice room (I got to see it the next afternoon, when I was dressing to leave) with an interesting view up 9th Avenue and across the airport. Couldn't see any of it. They warned me not to turn my head (might tear the glue holding my neck shut) and not to use my left arm (might stress the new arterial joint?). I was wired utterly awake but too tired to read, couldn't write (left-handed), didn't feel like moving or anything. Still better than my usual 7 or 10-day stays.

The next half comes in early January, when a stent will be run from my thigh, up the aorta, and positioned to close off the damaged inner liner of the aorta, and so closing off the full-length "pocket" that runs all the way from the aortic arch down to the south end somewhere.